The National Association of Nigerian Students has kicked against the recent barring of the holders of Higher National Diploma from monotechnics across the country from the yearly National Youth Service Corps Scheme.

Condemning the exclusion of the HND products of monotechnics from the national youth service, NANS described the action as a disservice to both the graduates of such institutions and Nigeria as a whole.

NANS, in a communiqu? issued on Sunday in Kaduna after a stakeholders? meeting and signed by Danjuma Sarki, the association?s coordinator for Zone A, described the policy as unproductive, anti-youth and detrimental to national integration.

The association however urged all the affected students to remain calm and advised them to reject the certificates of exemption issued to them by the NYSC, stressing that such certificates were not recognised by the NYSC Act.

NANS therefore gave the NYSC management a March 17 deadline to mobilise the eligible students of the monotechnics nationwide for the compulsory one-year service or face the wrath of students across the country.

The stakeholders? meeting was attended by the officials of NANS, the National Association of Polytechnics Students , the National Association of Monotechnic Students, the National Association of Cooperative Students and those of the National Association of Colleges of Agriculture and related Discipline.

?The NYSC should immediately reverse this policy and mobilise all eligible HND graduates from all monotechnics to service before March 17 2008 as failure to do so may force all monotechnic students to boycott lectures and other academic activities pending the resolution of the matter.

?This is a clear ploy to discourage monotechnic education in Nigeria which provides spe...ed manpower for the economy. The almost 7,000 students produced by monotechnics is a negligible percentage of students mobilised annually by the NYSC. Hence, the need for them to be mobilised.

?Federal government should direct NYSC to mobilise all eligible monotechnic graduates to service, while the National Assembly should also call the executive to order on the issue as the effects of the waiver policy on Nigeria?s socio-economic and political system as well as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be quite adverse,?

The communiqu? also appealed to various non-governmental organisations to condemn the injustice being perpetrated against monotechnic graduates.

Meanwhile, NANS has condemned the meagre amount budgetted for education in 2008 by the Kaduna State government, saying that the 12.2 percent budgetted for the sector was far below the 26 per cent stipulated by UNESCO and the 27 per cent promised by Governor Namadi Sambo in his 11-point agenda.

The NANS Coordinator, Zone A, Sarki, therefore urged Governor Sambo to fulfil his promises to the people of Kaduna State and raise the funds meant for the critical education sector to the stipulated 26 per cent.

?At the inception of Governor Namadi Sambo?s administration, many promises were made to the people of the state in line with the eleven point agenda, among which education is said to be a top priority. In pursuit of this, 27% budgetary allocation was promised to the education sector by the state government in order to boost and lift the standard of education in the state. However, after perusing the current 2008 Appropriation Bill forwarded to the state Assembly, we discovered that only a little above 12.2% of the total budget was meant for the education sector.

?We therefore use this medium as a watchdog in the Nigerian Society to call on the state government to fulfil its promises to avoid unnecessary controversy that it may generate and to maintain the integrity of the government before the eyes of the electorates,? he said.

Terence BurlinTuesday August 15, 2006The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk> Sir Eric Richardson, who has died aged 101, was anexponent of polytechnic education who headed threeinstitutions that have developed into universities -Salford, City and Westminster - and was a leader of20th-century evangelical Christianity. In 1957, he became head of the Regent StreetPolytechnic, which since 1881 had brought educationplus sport, social and spiritual activity to the lessprivileged of London, and now sought to cater forevery need, whatever the level. It was the only UKinstitution embracing a school and a vast range offurther education courses, as well as undergraduate,postgraduate and research work, but this was to countagainst it. Although the volume of advanced work was greater thanin many other similar places, the polytechnic was notdesignated as a college of advanced technology becauseof the non-advanced work, and so was not eligible fortransfer to the university sector when thatpossibility arose in 1964. But Richardson grasped thenettle. Within three months he went to the Ministry ofEducation with a plan for expansion, only to be toldto reduce his student intake, as provision was to bemoved away from central London. He completely ignoredthis dictate. By 1964, 70% of the polytechnic's work was advanced,and a few years later virtually all of it was.Subsequently, the Inner London Education Authorityaccepted Richardson's proposals, and a massivebuilding programme commenced in 1966 to provide twonew colleges - one to serve the professions of theconstruction industry, the other for engineering andscience - plus a school of management studies and atower block for student residences. The polytechnic was ready for the next phase in theexpansion of higher education, namely thepolytechnics. Ironically, the government had chosenfor its policy the very name of the institution whichhad brought the word 'polytechnic' into English, butin 1969 the governors of the day were compelled torename it the Polytechnic of Central London, withRichardson as its first director. His tenure did notsee it become a university, but he had focused itswork on higher education while retaining itscommitment to less privileged Londoners. When, in1992, the next policy shift permitted, the Polytechnicof Central London was easily launched as theUniversity of Westminster. Born in Woodchurch, Birkenhead, Richardson, barelybreathing and feeding badly, looked set to follow abrother who had died at seven months. In desperation,his mother took him to Rhyl, north Wales, where withinweeks he was transformed and equipped with aconstitution that was to last for a century. Heattended Birkenhead higher elementary school andbecame a Methodist Sunday schoolteacher; he remained adevout Christian all his life. While working as an apprentice in Liverpool, heattended evening classes at Birkenhead TechnicalCollege and Liverpool Technical College, obtaining hisONC, HNC and matriculation. With a Birkenheadscholarship and support from local Methodists, he wasable both to enter Liverpool University and continueto support his family: he took a first-class BEngdegree in 1931 and a PhD in 1933. His academic careerbegan at Hull Municipal College, as chief lecturer(1933-37) and head of electrical engineering(1937-41). He moved to be principal of OldhamMunicipal Tech-nical College (1942-44) and of theRoyal Technical College Salford, now SalfordUniversity (1944-47). Richardson was then invited to became principal ofwhat was then Northampton Polytechnic, so named fromits location in Northampton Square, London EC1, and isnow City University. He had married his wife May in1941, and part of the motivation for moving to thecapital was access to Great Ormond Street children'shospital for their daughter Sheila, who sadly diedwhile under treatment. A decade later he took up thechallenge of Regent Street. Richardson held many professional offices, becomingpresident of the Association of Principals ofTechnical Institutions in 1962, the year he was made aCBE. He was particularly amused by his appointment aschairman of the General Optical Council; they wantedto avoid anyone with spe...t knowledge. He servedfor 21 years on the advisory committee on colonialcolleges of arts, science and technology - he wasparticularly associated with the development of highereducation in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya - and wasknighted in 1967. His Christian commitment mirrored his professionallife, in Africa as chairman of the African EvangelicalFellowship (1950-70), and in visiting hospitals andhomes of the Leprosy Mission, of which he was acouncil member from 1970 and subsequently chairman(1974-84). His involvement with youth was reflected inposts with the National Young Life Campaign, theCrusaders Union and the University and CollegesChristian Fellowship. He was a trustee from 1966 ofthe Evangelical Trust and its chairman from 1989 to1999. For the London School of Theology, he acted aschairman (1970-77) and president (1978-90). He leavesMay and his three surviving children, David, Rosalynand Anne. ? John Eric Richardson, electrical engineer, academicand administrator, born June 30 1905; died July 202006

Prince, you are right but why do the public look down on them? why is it that they pity this qualification and people do not want it?.Hnd holders knew what they surfer with that qualification why is it so difficult to give them respects?